Alliance for Integrity Members Required to Return Millions to Taxpayers

by Admin | November 22, 2013 9:52 am

It doesn’t pass the smell test when your critics demanding integrity have once again coughed up millions to settle a massive Medicaid billing fraud suit.

Alliance for Integrity and Reform of 340B (AIR340B) members Eli Lilly and Baxter Healthcare have together returned $2.9 million to the state of Louisiana for allegedly overcharging the state’s Medicaid program. The final phase of the three-year investigation was announced Monday by the state’s attorney general, Buddy Caldwell. More than 53 pharmaceutical companies agreed pay back a total $238 million.

“These companies took advantage of the state and its taxpayers by fraudulently over-pricing and marketing prescription drugs, thereby forcing the state’s Medicaid program to grossly over-pay for those prescriptions,” said Caldwell. See the full dishonor roll here[1].

Johnson & Johnson—whose Janssen unit is an AIR340B member— previously paid Louisiana $10 million to settle its portion of the state’s Medicaid fraud suit. Earlier this month, it paid the federal and state governments $2.2 billion to settle a slew of civil and criminal claims[2], mainly over the illegal marketing of its antipsychotic Risperdal and several other medicines. And, less than a week earlier, J&J was accused in California of cheating on 340B discounts for AIDS drugs.

Source URL: https://340binformed.org/2013/11/air340b-members-nailed-for-fraud-again/

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